Prolonged Lake Effect Event Starts Today

A lengthy period of lake effect snow lasting at least several days, starting today, will effect areas southeast of Lake Ontario. This is because of an area of low pressure strengthening off the coast of Maine. This low will just sit and spin over the same area for a few days. As a result, the moist winds behind the low will come from the northwest over Lake Ontario, sending lake snows right down into Syracuse and the surrounding areas. Most areas will see 5-10" of snow by Sunday morning, but, as is often the case with lake effect, there could be isolated areas that get more, depending on where the heaviest bands set up. The National Weather Service has issued numerous Lake Effect Snow Advisories through Sunday morning for this reason.

The lake effect snow will continue Sunday and right into next week. The snow should be a little less impressive later on Sunday as some warmer air aloft works all the way around the Maine low. Pieces of energy will also move around the parent low throughout next week. As they pass through, the position of the lake effect will shift some, and the intensity of the bands will fluctuate. Timing these waves of energy and exactly how they will interact with the lake effect is impossible to predict more than a day in advance though. However, as a general rule of thumb, 2010 is going to be starting off pretty snowy for Syracuse.

~Drew Montreuil is a junior meteorology major at SUNY Oswego and has been running own weather Web site, www.grotonweather.com, for Cortland, Tompkins and southern Cayuga Counties since 2006.